Column: U.S. consumers show growing signs of debt distress

LONDON (Reuters) - Most U.S. borrowers remain in good shape but pockets of distress are emerging, especially in the farm sector as a result of tariffs, and among a minority of consumers struggling despite healthy employment and wage growth.

Corn is loaded into a truck at a farm in Tiskilwa, Illinois, U.S., July 6, 2018. REUTERS/Daniel Acker/File Photo

The proportion of commercial bank loans and leases 30 days or more past-due at the end of the second quarter dropped to its lowest since at least 1985, when current records began, according to data from the Federal Reserve.

The percentage of all bank loans and leases in arrears was just 1.50% at the end of June, down from 1.64% at the same point in 2018 and a record high of 7.40% in March 2010 in the aftermath of the last recession.

Residential real estate loans in arrears fell to 2.59%, from 3.22% a year earlier, and the lowest since the second quarter of 2007, before the eruption of the subprime mortgage crisis.

Commercial real estate loans and commercial and industrial (C&I) lending also show delinquency rates at or close to multi-decade lows in a sign of corporate health.